After my win, Mami and Jack decided to throw me a party, despite my constant pleas not to. Once we ate about enough to fill a truck we headed to the hotel to rest, where I said goodbye to my mother as she turned in the direction of Lumiose City, tears filling her eyes at my accomplishment.

  That night I stayed awake in my bed, my eyes occasionally looking over at the pink and orange ribbon on the nightstand that signified my victory. At first it was exciting to think about how someone like me could win something like that, but it wasn't long until the excitement faded into a lack of satisfaction.

Sure, I've won one ribbon so far, but something inside me is telling me that I shouldn't be satisfied with only one. For some reason it's as if my heart has already settled on a goal, and the only one talking in my mind is me, sharing that exact idea.
Is it because this is something I've always wanted to do? Or is it because now I'm obligated to strive for more ribbons, because I'm really a Coordinator now?

I sigh, my arm covering my weary eyes."I can't sleep." As I quietly get out of bed and put on a sweater before heading out, my mind crowds with confusion. Just who am I supposed to ask about this stuff? Since I never had any interest I never got to hear how my mother's journey went, if she even had one.

"Ursa?" Teddiursa appears at my feet, its right paw in its mouth.
"I'm going to go take a walk." The only downside to having Teddiursa as a friend is the fact that we can't have a verbal conversation, but then again, most of human and probably animal conversation is without words.

  I allow Teddiursa to follow me down the halls and outside, where I stare up at the night sky with uncertainty. I pick out the stars that I remember paying close attention to when I stayed home, not at all missing it. It's obvious that things are going to be different now, but whenever I try to pinpoint exactly what it is that's going to change, my mind overloads and crosses the question out completely.

"I wonder what a win means to Jack and Mami. Or Izumi and the other boy." For some reason I'm thinking about other people and what they would do, people who might as well be strangers. Then, over the occasional hoots in the night given by Noctowl, I hear a voice.

"Gardevoir, use Psyshock!" A sudden call turns my mind away from its conflict, my curiosity starting to reach its peak as the commands continue.

"Teddi?" Teddiursa runs ahead of me towards the noise, causing me to follow it with wariness. Who knows what's going on up ahead? I just wish Teddiursa didn't have active curiosity.

"Gardevoir, use the move again!" The closer I get the more it dawns on me; that voice sounds a lot like Jack's. What's he doing out at this time of night? Surely stupid people don't have much to think about?

I'm about to call for him until the sight of him being attacked by his own Pokemon takes the words right out of my mouth. "What on earth?"
"Again!" Gardevoir's attacks continue until Teddiursa intervenes, making me officially obligated to reveal myself.

"Gina!" Jack, sitting on the ground, cut up and clothes torn, looks up at me as if I'm the crazy one.

"There are other options, Jack. Dying shouldn't be one of them." Why else would he be ordering his Gardevoir to tear him up?

"I was training." Jack's look of complete innocence only confuses me, and his explanation doubles it. "To get stronger."
"Pokemon are the ones that battle!" Is irrationality his trademark or what? If he wants to win battles then shouldn't he and Gardevoir be trying to fight each other equally? Now this all reminds me of when I'd be at home, up at night this late watching television, just when all the weird shows come on. One of them was some man boxing with his Machoke, who looked powerful enough to break its Trainer's back accidentally.

"It's sort of complicated, I guess." Jack pats the sidewalk for me to sit down, and I hesitantly accept his offer.
"Gardevoir is really strong. She's been in my family forever, and when it was time for me to go to Kalos my father lent her to me."
I didn't want to hear his entire life story, but I keep any mean comments to myself. I'm not particularly good with people, even if I have known them for a while. Just look at how every conversation with my mom goes.

"She has a lot of strength and potential, but now it's my job to bring it out. Whenever she loses I know it has to be my fault."

"What?" I look over in disbelief, but Jack just gives me a look of brutal honesty. I quickly look at down at my knees, unable to admit to him that I'm slightly intrigued. All I've ever seen of Trainers was what was on television and the jerks that beat us back in Lumiose, pompous people ready to brag and blame everyone else for their own mistakes and failures. But I guess if all I have to go on is that, then I myself have a long way to go.

"That's really something. Taking responsibility, I mean." I hate myself for being honest with him, only because it gives him the slight inkling that I'm not as tough as I appear, but I'll also give credit to where credit is due, putting all my pride aside.
"You really think so?"

"Y-yeah." Why isn't he talking to Mami about this sort of thing? Then again, I doubt she'd be lurking about outside like I was.

"I think you're really strong, too, Gina."
This time I force myself to look Jack right in the eyes, a strong urge to correct him influencing my words."I'm not! I-"

I stop when the look of shock in his eyes causes me to notice just how loud I got. I sigh and scoot back, my eyes on the sky above."Just because I won on my first try doesn't mean that I'm strong. It doesn't even mean that I deserved that ribbon. I would have never considered trying to train as hard as you do since I don't have that kind of perseverance, so if anyone here has real strength, it's you."

"Wow." Jack springs up and reaches down to help me to my feet before I can even ask what's going on. "Gina, I have something to ask you."

With my hand in his, he takes a knee, and to say I'm nervous, over the top embarrassed.... Wouldn't even begin to describe the mess that's going on in my head, and there's not a speed that can describe the rate of my heart beating.

"Gina, will you...."

"Hey, you two!" Coming to save me is Mami, dressed in pajamas, who crashes into me with a hug that may as well have killed me.

"Jack! Why don't you ask Mami what you were going to ask me instead?" Now I can hopefully pass this mess onto her!

"Alrighty!" Jack takes Mami's hand, tugging on it until she lets go of me. "Mami, will you battle me?"
"Are you serious?"

"Ursa, Ursa." Teddiursa hops onto my shoulder to pat my back in a "there, there" motion, and for a moment I'm glad to have such a caring Pokemon until I put the pieces together in my head.

"Just what are you there, thereing? I'm glad he didn't propose!"

Teddiursa gives me a doubtful look, like the one a romantically intrusive best friend would give, and while I'm stunned I'm also brought to a realization. This is just another form of communication that'll bring us closer than words ever can.

"Fen?" Then my defiant Fennekin appears, her movements as if she'd decided on her own to take a stroll, though I'm sure she'll just run away whenever she gets the chance.

"Aren't you going to escape?"

"Fen." Fennekin fixes me with a look that says,"And ruin my chances at Top Coordinator?" Then she lifts her head in an overly fancy manner, as if she's begrudgingly approved of me just for the sake of that.

"Can't you take her back, Mami?" I'm answered by silence, and look around to see that me and my Pokemon are the only ones around.

For whatever reason, instead of just going back inside, I look for my traveling companions, feeling somewhat glad when I find them on Route 6.

"Okay, Gardevoir! Use Calm Mind!"

Calm Mind? Teddiursa and I watch from the shadows cast by the row of trees in front of us. It looks like a battle has begun.

"You know, Teddiursa, maybe they're not so bad." I watch my words carefully, not intent on giving Teddiursa the wrong idea."I'll just keep a closer eye on them this time around." That's all it is. For now, anyway. I quickly silence the little voice in my head while it finds more words to aggravate me.

"Shut up!" I hiss through clenched teeth in an effort to silence what's going on in my talkative mind.

"Oh, Gina!" From Mami's spot she notices me, and in a futile effort I creep back only to have her run up to me and yank me out of the shadows.

"I feel like I can get even stronger now!" Jack begins going off about how now he can win his next badge, and how it's all thanks to me."Thanks, Gina!"

"No problem, I guess." Why do people have to be so confusing? How can I possibly be viewed as a hero when all I see myself as is the villain? How do I know that what I say and do won't end up antagonizing the people around me?

"You really are a good friend, Gina."

Mami's endearment causes my hand to spring out of her grasp like a knee jerk reaction, and this time I ignore the startled look in her eyes."We aren't friends, Mami. We just met."Yeah, two weeks ago.

Yet somehow she doesn't back away, and doesn't even look phased by my harsh statement. Instead she grabs my hand again, her purple gaze full of a strange unhindered wistfulness as she speaks again. "Then I'll do my best to become a friend you can be proud to have!"

Her words, much to my chagrin are touching, almost enough to make a break in the ice wound around my heart. It's not enough, but being the lost cause I am it's almost heart wrenching to see a stranger, no, a familiar acquaintance, not give up on me when it seems most everyone, even myself has.

I stay silent, unable to find any words to attack with. I hate myself for being this way, when I thought that there was no weapon that could even scratch this barrier of mine.

Mami's hand reaches in close to my face, her finger lightly brushing away the strands of hair that have been glued to my face by the wind."Let's battle, Gina! They say that that's the best way to get to know someone! "
I'm thrust into a battle once again, and this time the weak in me overpowers the strong with a positive response."Sure."

I walk over to Jack, who's doing some kind of celebratory dance with his Gardevoir. "Why'd you use that move instead of attacking?"

"Gardevoir!"

"Calm Mind raises stats by having you and your Pokemon calm yourselves!" He only stops dancing like a jester to hug his Gardevoir, and Gardevoir, only slightly shorter than him tightens her grip and picks him up off the ground.

How strange. "I'm sure it's just the Pokemon and not the Trainer." This time around I don't think of Jack so much as an idiot, but instead just a simple guy who likes to have fun. That makes me the idiot.

Even from his undignified position, Jack still smiles at me with a kind of wisdom I'd never seen from him before." Is that true?" He shrugs."After all, I lose all if I lose my cool."

"Cool," I say before he yawns and his Gardevoir lugs him away in the direction of Camphrier Town. Then as if hitting a mosquito on my arm my hand smacks my mouth, astonished at having given a compliment.
"I don't care for them that much." Sure, keep lying. How about I just admit that I like them more than Trick and his company? Fine by me.

"Piplup versus Teddiursa okay?"
Mami, not seeming to have noticed any of my tiny outbursts, calls from her side of the narrow road.

"Uh, sure." I guess this can be used as practice for that Coordinating business. After all, Mami is a Performer, and they're alike in a way, right?

"Okie dokie, Piplup!" Mami points to me and Teddiursa, who's just arrived at me feet with Fennekin hanging around nearby.

"Piplup, Piplup!" Mami's bright blue Piplup springs forward, her largw pink bow dancing on her head as the breeze catches it.

"I'll go first! Jump!" Mami points to the sky above, her Piplup leaping high into the air as if its legs had springs hidden inside them.

"Watch closely, Teddiursa."

"Urs!" The both of us expecting a Bubblebeam attack, I clench my fists and put full focus on Piplup's movements, with Teddiursa in a crouch in front of me, it's claws out and ready.
Mami waits a bit before throwing her arm down for the attack, her command shaking my focus."Ice Beam!"

"Jump!" I quickly order Teddiursa to avoid the attack, but Piplup's Ice Beam lands on the ground instead, as if she had no intention of targeting Teddiursa with the move. As the blue beam splits through the air, the shimmering ice particles breeze past my face, giving my arms goosebumps.

"What?" Teddiursa slips after landing, unable to find steady ground on the freezing cold layer of ice.

"Now... Slide!" Piplup flips onto its belly and slides on the ice with ease, forcing me to remember the first time I battled Viola, and Mami's own battle against her.
Think, Gina. Don't lose your cool just yet. Then my increasingly frantic eyes catch the sight of large shards sticking out, giving me an idea. I point to them."Teddiursa, try and slide over there!"

"Urs?" Teddiursa looks back at me, then at the ice, and its eyes widen before it turns back and gives me a determined nod.

"Lup?" Piplup slides past Teddiursa, its round face puzzles until it uses its flippers to guide its movements to turn around and chase my Pokemon.
"Peck!"

"Lup..." Piplup's yellow beak turns a bright white as it's size increases in length, almost resembling a sword.

"Ursa!" Teddiursa, now in the middle of the icy field latches onto the jagged piece of ice, using it as a shield against Piplup's Peck.

"Charm!" Still holding on tightly to the ice, Teddiursa unleashes dozens of pink hearts that throw off our opponent. In that interval another idea reaches my mind.

"Break the ice!"

"Ursa!" This time instead of all its claws, a single claw enveloped in white light forms from its entire paw, and with a quick flash the ice is sliced.

"It used Slash!" Both Mami and Piplup take a second to marvel at Teddiursa's new move before they get their heads back in the battle. "No problem, Piplup! Use Peck again!"

Teddiursa struggles to maintain its balance, but still manages to use its foot to kick up its slab of ice to use as a shield.

"Fury Swipes!"

"Dodge it!" Before Teddiursa even begins to attack with its claws, Piplup jumps back towards me, and that's when I tell Teddiursa to ride on the slab.

"What?"

"Ride it like a skateboard!" Teddiursa gives me a quizzical look, and I hurry and try to imitate a skateboarder, my left leg making a kicking motion before resting next to my right, my arms stretched out beside me.

"Ursa!" Teddiursa, having caught on, does the same on the ice, using its left foot to push itself with its other on the slab, both of its small arms out with a Fury Swipes attack readied.

"Hm." Mami doesn't immediately voice her frustration, but it's evident in the sweat that swims down from her forehead. "Slide and use Peck!"

It's as if both Pokemon are jousters, their blades serving as ready lances, and everyone waiting to see who'll be thrown off balance.

Just before they clash, Mami orders Piplup to jump into the air, and I hurry and have Teddiursa slow its speed before it crashes into me.

"Whirlpool!" Piplup quickly summons a large, blue swirling whirlpool that hovers just above the ice before plunging itself into its watery depths. "Ride it, Piplup!"

"Hm." So that's how battling works. I guess if it's between someone you don't necessarily hate, it can be enjoyed. Not only that, those battling get to learn something from their opponent, making battling not a complete waste of time.

"Then let's strike back, Teddiursa!"

"Ursa!" Teddiursa picks up the ice and turns it around before hopping onto it and sliding fearlessly towards the huge Whirlpool.

Out of the corner of my eye I see Fennekin watching close by, a somewhat longing look in its eyes. Before my head turns completely around she spins and pads away.

Shrugging it off I bring my attention back to the battle, just in time to see Piplup and Teddiursa jumping across each other, smiles on their faces as the battle continues. On the other side of the battlefield I notice Mami smiling as well, and the weak in me causes me to do the same.